The Broadway Bomb brings together more than 2,500 longboard skaters each year in New York City to push eight miles through Manhattan, from West 116th Street to the Charging Bull in the Financial District. Since it’s inception in 2000, the NYPD has tried to hamper the event by hassling skaters, blocking roads, and even handing out tickets. This year the NYPD busted out the orange netting to try and corrall the skaters. They failed miserably. It was so bad that someone set the folly to the music from Benny Hill and it couldn’t be more appropriate.

Emmeran wrote:

I've been putting up wood for the winter, but I broke my favorite ax and it's put me in a bit of a funk. I don't like the fiber-glass handled axes and while they'll make do I really need to get a new hickory handle.

Emmeran wrote:

I've been putting up wood for the winter, but I broke my favorite ax and it's put me in a bit of a funk. I don't like the fiber-glass handled axes and while they'll make do I really need to get a new hickory handle.

I hate it when I break my toys...

Other than splitting fatwood I haven't touched an ax, maul or wedge in 30 years. We burn 3 to 4 cords a season, and rely on a 16" Stihl and a 12 ton hydraulic splitter.

If you're actually using an ax to cut or even split your firewood you're being overly Amish.

Emmeran wrote:

XregnaR wrote:

This. Not the most efficient method, but it sure as hell burns off the worries of the day, and having a maniacal glint in your eye while you do it will help keep the neighbors, wife & kids in line.

Until they hide the axe on you, sure. Took me years to find that dutifully honed blade, none the too much worse for wear and all because I one whack axed the teen terror hotline running upstairs. Truly, one of life's sweeter moments.

"I spent eight years on the SWAT team. I've served hundreds of no-knock warrants. I know firsthand how it all operates," he says. "I also know firsthand that there are better alternatives. Too often we start with the highest level of force. We should always start at the lowest level. If the police show up and the situation deteriorates, then that's our fault. We haven't done our job right. I think we get too caught up in the whole officer safety thing. The danger you expose everyone to in these raids is significant."

My city uses a thing called the "Armadillo" which is a converted Brinks-type truck that can provide 24-hour surveillance, but the surveillance isn't what reduces the crime ... it's having the Armadillo parked right outside your nuisance property. It has an element of public shaming, and it lets you know the cops are on to you. At first people were concerned that the Armadillo was going to be used to harass law-abiding citizens and be all surveillance-state-y, but now that it's been in use for 4 years, people LOVE the Armadillo. They had to get a second one because the waiting list is so long to have it park on particular streets -- neighborhood associations and individuals request them at local nuisance properties, and the police evaluate the requests and place the Armadillos accordingly. The two are named "Starsky" and "Hutch." People turn out at community festivals where there's an Armadillo so they can see them and take pictures with them...

Another thing they're doing locally is buying a few abandoned houses in run-down, dangerous neighborhoods with bad police relationships and having patrol officers actually move in to the neighborhoods to live in the neighborhoods they police and try to develop relationships with the community. They've just started the program but I think it's a great idea, and I'm hopeful it'll work well.